Missoula Man Takes Meth With Him to Parole Drug Test, Now Back in Jail

Missoula Police made an easy arrest on Friday, after a man tested positive for drug use during a scheduled meeting with his parole officer, Police spokesman Travis Welsh explains.

"A 33-year-old man by the name of Rico Coates had an appointment to meet with his probation officer and during the course of the appointment they tested him for narcotics and his test came back positive," Welsh said. "He was placed under arrest and was eventually transported to the Missoula County Jail with a probation violation."

But the violations didn’t stop there, it appears that Mr. Coates actually took some drugs with him when he headed out to see his parole officer.

"The probation officers reported that they searched his vehicle and found a drug that later was determined to be methamphetamine along with the drug paraphernalia that goes along with it," Welsh said. "Those charges, Possession of Dangerous drugs and Paraphernalia were then subsequently added to the probation violation that he originally faced."

Both the probation violation and the drug possession charges are listed by the jail as felonies.